The Irish government believed the GAA in the US was being used by the IRA as a means of raising funds in the early 1970s, according to secret documents released yesterday (Wed).
A confidential report prepared by the consulate general of Ireland in Boston for the Irish government in May 1971 revealed that fundraisers associated with the IRA had gained control of several traditional Irish organisations, particularly the GAA, in the city.
Officials reported that the Provisionals used the groups to organise fundraising events, raising up to $4,000 a month in Boston alone.
The cabinet papers just released from Dublin archives also revealed that the UDA sent a grim warning to Taoiseach Jack Lynch in 1972 that the Republic would become a target if IRA violence continued in the north.
In a letter, the loyalist group claimed that its strength had soared to 68,000 with 14,000 men "undergoing training".
The letter, stored in the National Archives in Dublin, was written by someone claiming to be from the "inner council" of the UDA to outline the group's "views on Eire".
The Stormont cabinet's concern at the intensification of civil rights marches in the run-up to Bloody Sunday is reflected in the cabinet files just released in Belfast.
At a cabinet meeting in Stormont Castle just five days before the Derry march on January 25 1972, Prime Minister Brian Faulkner said he was satisfied at the handling of "various republican demonstrations" the previous weekend. He stressed both the small response of the public and the "timely and effective intervention of the security forces".
Also in January, Stormont ministers discussed extending a ban on parades which was due to expire on February 8 1972. The ban had been introduced in August 1971 as a corollary to internment at the behest of British Prime Minister Edward Heath.
Ministers accepted the recommendation of the Joint Security Committee that there should be a total ban on parades for a further period of 12 months. This decision was to arouse the ire of the Orange Order and backbench Unionist MPs who foresaw the banning of the Twelfth of July parades for the first time.
